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This article looks at how engineers and scientists might build space colonies in the form of deep-space stations. Miriam Kramer writes that a station could be constructed using NASA's Space Launch System and would be made from the rocket's tank that could be as big as a two-story house. However, engineers will need improved-propulsion rockets to transfer materials from Earth to space or move planetary bodies to their proper location, said Mark Uhran, a former assistant associate administrator for the International Space Station at NASA Headquarters. Another essential element is a "closed-loop life-support system" to recycle materials to make the colony sustainable indefinitely.

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A 177-foot, five-segment, solid-rocket motor that is 25% more potent than its predecessors passed a firing test Wednesday. The motor is a key component of NASA's intention to boost its deep-space launcher in 2018.

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The deep-space Orion capsule has passed its 14th and most severe parachute test, being dropped from a transport aircraft at 35,000 feet. The chute deployments are a multi-stage process, with initial chutes pulling away a bay cover to allow the main chutes to deploy.

Avcoat material that gradually burns away in the 4,000-degree Fahrenheit heat of a spacecraft's atmospheric re-entry is part of the largest space-capsule heat shield ever built, writes Miriam Kramer. The 16.5-foot-diameter shield has just been installed on NASA's new Orion deep-space capsule, which is due for a test flight later this year.